The U.S. Department of State reportedly revealed its plans for adopting an extra active stance towards making crypto users more responsible, via increasing its efforts for tracing crypto payment. 

Specifically, the Biden administration is reportedly looking to increase the amount of efforts put into crypto payment tracing, particularly regarding ransomware attacks. The authority intends to tackle cybersecurity and how crypto was exploited to become a payment medium in those attacks. 

The report surfaced in time with the State Department’s recent announcement that its Rewards for Justice program would reportedly be making a maximum bounty of $10 million available, for entities that can help with determining the factors that caused cyberattacks on critical infrastructure throughout America. 

The government agency further revealed that it has made a new tip line accessible via the Tor browser network – designed by individuals in the US government and dedicated to anonymous internet communications – and potentially roll out crypto payments for details associated with ransomware attacks.

In June, U.S. officials, working under the scope of a government task force, reportedly confiscated over $2 million in crypto utilized for carrying out ransom payment in an attack on the Colonial Pipeline network. 

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco reportedly remarked at that time that the initiative to confiscate said fund was the first significant operation in a broader target of the task force, to investigate, disrupt and prosecute cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, and claimed that it would deep-diver into attacks of the same kind as well. 

In 2020, the IRA made a $625,000 bounty available to any individual who could assist in tracing transactions on the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network as well as for privacy coins including Monero (XMR).